How a Doomed Spacecraft Lived to Tell the Tale of the Sun

What would you do if you were in charge of a billion-dollar satellite that was spinning out of control? In 1998, NASA and ESA engineers had to solve this exact problem. How did they avert this disaster? SOHO is our Pin of the Month! Get it before December 31st: https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow/products/scishow-pin-of-the-month-solar-and-heliospheric-observatory-soho-december Hosted by: Hank Green SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Jb Taishoff, Bd_Tmprd, Harrison Mills, Jeffrey Mckishen, James Knight, Christoph Schwanke, Jacob, Matt Curls, Sam Buck, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, Lehel Kovacs, Adam Brainard, Greg, Ash, Sam Lutfi, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, charles george, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer ---------- Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: http://dftba.com/scishow ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/solar-flares-radio-blackouts https://www.newscientist.com/article/2150350-a-tech-destroying-solar-flare-could-hit-earth-within-100-years/ https://spaceweather.com https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-helps-power-grids-weather-geomagnetic-storms/ https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/26oct_solarshield https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/29/esa_soho_space_extenders/ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/overview/index.html https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/soho/in-depth/ https://eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/pag-filter/-/asset_publisher/8jbNpfmcMhvK/content/soho https://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bullet97/vandenbu.pdf https://www.universetoday.com/143152/spacecraft-gyroscopes-and-reaction-wheels-you-can-never-have-enough/ https://sci.esa.int/web/soho/-/30279-soho-reveals-tornadoes-on-the-sun https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-s-sdo-sees-new-kind-of-magnetic-explosion-on-sun http://soi.stanford.edu/press/ssu8-97/ssu.html https://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/soho/prelim_and_background_rept.html https://sci.esa.int/web/soho/-/12298-pr-29-1999-solar-wind-surfs-waves-in-the-sun-s-atmosphere https://sci.esa.int/web/soho/-/59362-gravity-waves-detected-in-suns-interior-reveal-rapidly-rotating-core https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/why-esa-and-nasas-soho-spacecraft-spots-so-many-comets/ https://insider.si.edu/2011/03/mystery-of-the-quiet-sun-solved/ https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/45/4/4.21/264090 Image Sources: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/mission_soho.html https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12052 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12706 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12071 https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/gallery/Helioseismology/mdi023.html https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reaction_wheel02.jpg https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11158